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Logitech Q3 Misses; To Divest Remote Controls, Other Lines

For the quarter, the PC and consumer electronics peripherals company reported sales of $614.5 million, down 14% from a year ago, and well below the Street consensus at $667.9 million.The company lost $195 million in the quarter, or $1.24 a share, reflecting the $211 million one-time non-cash goodwill charge announced on Tuesday.

Excluding the charge, the company said, non-GAAP net income would have been $16 million, which would imply profits of 10 cents a share, dramatically below the Street consensus at 31 cents.

Sales were down 20% in EMEA, 8% in the Americas and 11% in Asia Pacific.

“As we articulated when we started the third quarter, continued weakness in the global PC market was the primary factor in our disappointing Q3 results,” CEO Bracken Darrell said in a statement. “These results are unacceptable and we are taking decisive action as an outcome of my strategic review.”

The company noted that among other things it plans to divest its remote control and digital video security categories; the company also plans to discontinue certain other “non-strategic” products, including speaker docks and console gaming peripherals, by the end of 2013. Logitech added that it plans reduce costs “significantly” across the company, beyond the $80 million annual cost savings form a restructuring announced last April.

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